7th October, 1996

A pretty excellent week, all in all.

Single of the Week

"Sleeper" by Audioweb

Stealing a pulsing metal riff from some poodle-perm merchants or other and adding hip-hop rhythms and sequencers on top of it, this is a high-profile track from Audioweb. With lyrics such as "DSS is on my back", and incorporating multicultural aspects like ragga and a bit of Eastern-style backing vocals, this is a very British track and is absolutely superb.

Now I wonder if Louise Wener's lot will return the favour and release a track called "Audioweb"?

B-side "The Other Side Of Love" is in a similar style to the a-side: a driving piece of guitar-drenched indie-dance with warmly-sung and accomplished vocals. Extra tracks on the CD are two remixes of "Sleeper", both of which bring the dance side of the song to the fore, one in a disco, hi-nrg way; the other accentuating the bass to create a mellow dub.

Rating: 10/10


The Rest

"C'Mon Kids" by The Boo Radleys

Starting off with a screamed "C'mon kids!", followed by layered rawk guitar, this is The Boo Radleys at their best. Just as catchy and immediate as "Wake Up Boo!"; but whereas that song was a nice fluffy pop song that your parents liked, this is a chain-smoking, roughed-up beast of a track that goes up to your parents and gives them the finger. Sice's vocals are almost yelled, sneeringly managing to hold the tune as they relate the age-old rock n roll cliche of ignoring what your elders and betters say and doing your own thing. And to top it all there's one of those bad sweary words in there that all such songs should have. Nice n sleazy.

First of the b-sides "Spion Kop" is a mellow, tuneful romp through Oasis territory (with bongo drums). Next up is "To Beautiful", an old-school Boos track with guitars dripping effects and harmonising vocals. Closing the first CD is "Bullfrog Green (Ultra Living Remix) an inoffensive take on a track I'm unfamiliar with (I don't have the Boos latest LP yet...)

As both CDs of this release were only 99p each, I got the second one too. The extra tracks here are "Nothing To Do But Scare Myself", a My Bloody Valentine style song with very distorted guitars and vocals that transforms into a cartoon pop song then back into murky territory again. The Boo Radleys have obviously found a time machine and set it for 1989...

The Ultramarine Remix of "From The Bench At Belvidere" is adequate, but unlikely to be played more than a couple of times. The Greg Hunter remixed "Fortunate Sons" is much better: the sound of a slow industrial Yello or a more malevolent Kraftwerk.

Rating: 9/10

"Little Arithmetics" by dEUS

Traditional indie guitar and drums fare from dEUS here, but a great song that echoes the faded quietness of some Nirvana tracks, the pop sensibilities of The Lightning Seeds, and the dynamics of bands like The Pixies. Ending in a collision of noise, "Little Arithmetics" is familiar and comfortable, yet refreshingly off-kilter and different.

"My Wife Jan" could be an out-take from "Nevermind" with its thrashing guitars, great tune and yelled, ambiguous lyrics. "The Tugboat" is a weird ballad with buzzing, sickly guitar droning in the background evoking an air of threat and menace, whilst the last track on the CD is "Everything Is The Same (Except No One Believes Me)" and features the bizarre sound of someone doing increasingly frantic cat impressions (honest) whilst a piano and guitar back gently sung vocals. As strange a track as any dEUS have ever released.

Rating: 8/10

"6 Underground" by Sneaker Pimps

This came on 3 CDs (each 99p again), so I bought them...but as they total 10 different versions of "6 Underground" plus a couple of extra songs, I won't go on to detail them all!

The "main" release here is the Nellee Hooper mix of "6 Underground", and it is a mid-tempo, trip-hoppy soundscape with swathes of guitar, vibro-noises and other effects, all woven together with female vocals that sound a cross between Siouxsie Sioux and the singer from Moloko. Slightly menacing; not brilliant, but a creeping grower.

"Can't Find My Way Home", one of the new tracks, starts off with a canine-worrying high-pitched electronic squeal, then adds jungle-ish drum beats to a weird, alien track. Pretty original, this is actually quite unsettling if played at high volume. "Precious" features some extremely Banshees-like vocals and deep, very Gothic backing sounds.

As I said, the remaining 9 tracks are all remixes of "6 Underground" - buy them yourself if you're desperate to find out what they're like...as you can imagine, some are better than others.

Rating: 8/10


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